In 2005, Kansas City Southern (KSC) purchased Mexican Railroad TFM, S.A. de C.V.. The purchase, which included all of the common stock held by the parent company, was done to create a NAFTA railroad. NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement was a trade agreement signed by the US, Canada and Mexico to form a trilateral trade bloc designed to boost trade and the economy of the three North American countries.

KCS planned on using the railroad to link to the Mexican city of Lazaro Cardenas with the US. Lazaro Cardenas is a deep port city on the southern Pacific coast. Using the Mexican port to import products from China, KCS could bypass the expensive costs of using the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

These days, the KCSM (Kansas City Southern de Mexico) railroad still runs from southern Mexico to the US border and is transporting more than just trade goods. The train has become a major mode of transportation for thousands of illegals from Central and South America, including unaccompanied children.

But the train ride north has become a dangerous ride for many. Illegals are being robbed, beaten and murdered on the train. The ride has become so notoriously dangerous that it has been nicknamed the Death Train or La Bestia (The Beast).

In response to the dangers presented by the Death Train has prompted the attorney general of the Mexican state of Veracruz to file criminal complaints with federal prosecutors against KCS and Ferrosur, the Mexican railway operating the train through central Mexico. The charges include robbery, human trafficking, kidnapping, murder and extortion.

Last month a report issued by the Washington Office of Latin America (a non-governmental group that works for the civil rights of immigrants, legal and illegal, described the Death Train rise, saying:

“Migrants in the southern border zone are drawn to ‘La Bestia,’ the train that heads northward to central Mexico and then on to the U.S. border. For hundreds of miles they ride on the roofs of the train cars trying to avoid fatal falls, hot days, frigid nights, and low-clearance tunnels. Every eight to ten days or so, trains depart from two routes that originate near the southern border.”

Is it really any surprise that an American based company is providing a major mode of transportation for thousands of Central and Southern American illegals? After all, it’s an America president that was openly inviting them here with the promise of amnesty, so why shouldn’t an American railroad help bring them to our border?

What I want to know is why hasn’t KCSM taken steps to keep the illegals from hopping on board their trains? It shouldn’t be that hard to place several armed guards on the trains to keep people from boarding and to chase off those that have. Once they start doing that, word will get out to avoid the Death Train and that should help reduce the number of illegals pouring into our country. We need to start a writing campaign demanding that KCS take measures to keep illegals off their Mexican trains. Perhaps if they get flooded with emails, letters and phone calls they just might take action.